In rural and many suburban areas, mail is delivered to residences and places of business by a delivery person placing the mail into a mailbox positioned at the side of a street or road. Such a mailbox typically includes a box-like housing having a door located on the front of the housing, and the housing is mounted to a post which is secured in the ground. A flag is usually pivotally connected to the mailbox housing, movable between a lowered position and a raised position. The flag can be moved to the raised position to indicate either that a delivery has been made or that items are contained within the box for pickup by the delivery person.
In recent years, many areas have been plagued with considerable damage done to mailboxes, usually as the result of vandalism. Typically, commercially available mailboxes are constructed of lightweight material in an effort to keep costs and prices low. However, such mailboxes are not able to resist damage that can be caused by acts of vandalism. Common forms of such damage include a caved-in box, a bent or twisted door or flag, and removal of the box from the support post.
Heretofore, it has been common practice to permanently and rigidly attach mailboxes to posts and to replace damaged or destroyed rural mailboxes and posts, at considerable inconvenience and/or expense, requiring a new post and a new mailbox and time to assemble and reset the same in the ground.
There are other problems with the use of permanently and rigidly attached mailboxes to posts, most notable being that there is no “give” therewith, upon the application of an outside force, i.e. when the post breaks, e.g. by an errant vehicle, many times it acts as a missile, crashing through windshields and/or striking persons or property in close proximity thereto. And, there are additional problems with the use of permanently and rigidly attached units, most notably being interruption of mail service, upon breakage of the post or mailbox, until repairs and/or replacement are made.
What is needed therefore, is a mailbox design which is better able to withstand acts of vandalism or inadvertent contact by a motor vehicle without suffering damage that requires replacement of the mailbox.